Daily Briefing: What to know about XBB.1.5

The newest COVID-19 variant to spread across the U.S. is about five times more contagious than an earlier omicron variant. Also in the news: Crowds of mourners filled St. Peter's Square in the Vatican Thursday for Benedict XVI's funeral and the suspect in the killing of four University of Idaho students has been brought back to Idaho.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. Here are 18 New Year's gift ideas to get 2023 started off right.

Here are Thursday's headlines.

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XBB.1.5 cases adding up 

The newest COVID-19 variant XBB.1.5 doesn't appear to cause more serious disease than its predecessors, experts say. But the strain appears to be about five times more contagious than an earlier omicron variant, which was five times more contagious than the original virus, infectious disease experts told USA TODAY.

What to know: We may not be going back to the days of 2020, but experts say the new variant is spread...
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